Cleaning Out the Attic
by hpfreak20011
Summary: The Marauders are over at Remus's and decide to go through his attic. I hate writing summaries, so plz r/r!!


On the first day of their holidays between their fifth and sixth year, we find the Marauders sitting in Remus's bedroom and once again, they are bored out of their minds. For once in their lives, the boys were not setting fire to Snape's robes, enchanting anything to fly around and hit Malfoy in the head, dying anyone's hair strange colors, or doing anything that would get them into any trouble at all.  
  
After about five minutes of complete silence, Peter decided he had to do something to break the abnormal stillness that had come over the boys by obnoxiously exclaiming, "I'm bored!"  
  
"Me too," replied Remus, who had abruptly woken up from his daydream at the sound of Peter's voice.  
  
Sirius took his head off of his arms and turned around to face James who looked ready to fall asleep. "What do you want to do James?"  
  
"I don't know what do you want to do Padfoot?"  
  
Sirius sighed and shrugged his shoulders in an unenthusiastic way. "What do you want to do Moony?"  
  
"We could pull a prank on Snape," suggested Remus, but he said it in a way that showed he wasn't really into the idea.  
  
James sat up straighter in his chair and turned to face the rest of the group who were all slouching carelessly on Remus's bed. "I never thought I'd say this but, nah."  
  
Sirius immediately sat up with interest and looked at his best friend, astonished at what he had just heard James say. "Did you just say that you're sick of pulling pranks on Snape, James? What is the world coming to?"  
  
James rolled his eyes and sighed. "I didn't say that I was sick of pranking Snape, all I said was that I didn't want to."  
  
"Same difference James,"  
  
"Actually, there's a big difference Padfoot, I would die before I got sick of pulling pranks on Snape."  
  
"There's no difference!"  
  
"Yes there is!"  
  
"No there isn't!"  
  
"Yes, there is!"  
  
"No."  
  
"Yes."  
  
"No."  
  
"Yes."  
  
"No."  
  
"Yes."  
  
"No."  
  
"No."  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Ha!" said James triumphantly. "Gotcha!" "I told you there was a difference!"  
  
Sirius replied by sticking out his tongue and returning to his very bored state.  
  
"Okay... That was interesting... what about pranking Malfoy then?" suggested Peter, who looked determined to get the other three boys to do something other than stare at the wall all day.  
  
Remus quickly shoved aside that idea. "I think he's still recuperating from our last prank at the quidditch final. His hair still has a bit of red and gold shade to it."  
  
"But the prank was three weeks ago!" cried James in a surprised manner.  
  
Sirius sat up and grinned rather evilly at no one in particular. "And that is why you never insult a Marauder. You'll only get covered in the Gryffindor colors."  
  
"So what are we going to do?" repeated Peter, who was still desperate to get out of the room.  
  
As if an answer to Peter's prayers, Remus's mother stepped over the threshold into Remus's bedroom. "Why don't you four clean out the attic for me? It's getting to be unbearable."  
  
Remus looked up with an expression of surprise and confusion on his face at his mother. "We have an attic?"  
  
"Yes we do dear,"  
  
"Oh, then we might as well, there's nothing to do anyways."  
  
"I can't believe that it's the first day of holidays and you four are already sulking like this. Usually you're all so excited to be home and away from the professors." Her look of confusion changed suddenly to worry. "Are you feeling alright dears? Did something happen? Did you get expelled? Did you blow up another sink in the Slytherin Tower?"  
  
Remus sighed exasperatedly at his mother. "No mum, we're fine, but I'd like to find out more about this attic I never knew we had. What's up there anyway?"  
  
"I have no idea really, that's why I'm sending you four up there."  
  
Sirius jumped up at the idea of actually doing something and said, "Ok, sounds like fun!"  
  
"Only you Padfoot would think that cleaning would be fun."  
  
"Shut it James."  
  
Remus sighed at his two friends who were now bickering on his bed, grabbed them by their shirt sleeves and dragged them out of his room.  
  
Five minutes later, the four boys were standing at the foot of a ladder that led up into the dark area above them that was the attic.  
  
"Wow, it's pretty dark up there. Do you think we should bring a flashlight?" asked Peter, craning his neck to look up into the darkness above them.  
  
"A what?" Peter caught a look of confusion on his friends' faces. He sighed. "It's the muggle version of a lumos spell. Only when you want to use one, the batteries are usually dead."  
  
"Whatever," said Sirius, who was starting to climb the ladder. He stopped about halfway up to smirk at Remus and say, "I want to be the first to find baby pictures of ickle Moony!"  
  
"Shut up!" Remus yelled up at Sirius who was now smiling evilly. "My baby pictures are a lot better than yours so I wouldn't be talking."  
  
Unfortunately for Remus, Sirius had a great comeback, "Aww... is ickle Moony embarrassed by his baby pictures?"  
  
"Do you want me to strangle you Padfoot?"  
  
James fought back a laugh with much difficulty and managed to keep a straight face while addressing Remus in a very serious way. "It certainly seems so Moony."  
  
"Can we just get going please?" asked a now very irritated voice behind James.  
  
"Alright Peter, hold your horses." called Sirius as his body disappeared up into the attic.  
  
James climbed up the ladder next and said, "Last one up's a Slytherin!" before disappearing up into the darkness.  
  
Remus, who had been unlucky enough to climb up last, said in a very whiny voice, "That wasn't fair, you got a head start!"  
  
The only reply he got was a very annoying sing-song voice chanting "Moony's a Slytherin! Moony's a Slytherin!" from Peter.  
  
"Shut up Peter, before I filet you and feed you to Fang."  
  
Peter stopped chanting almost at once.  
  
Sirius rubbed his hands together and looked around. "Okay, so where should we start?"  
  
"How about over here?" suggested James, walking over to the far side of the attic and returning with a large cardboard box in his arms.  
  
Remus looked at the box and asked, "Who gets to open it?"  
  
"I'll start," replied James as he sat down cross-legged in front of his friends and opened up the box. Inside were a very handsome set of quidditch balls and bats.  
  
Sirius looked astonished as he reached into the box and pulled out one of the bats and started examining it. "These are nice bats Remus, they're trimmed with gold! Where did you get this stuff?"  
  
Remus shrugged. "How should I know?"  
  
"You probably should know since it's iyour/i attic."  
  
"Oh I should, should I?" said Remus picking up the other bat and promptly hitting Sirius in the head with it.  
  
"Ow!" was Sirius's only response.  
  
Remus smirked, "Well that's what you get."  
  
James quickly ended the argument by smiling a smile evil enough to rival Snape, Filch, and Lucius Malfoy all rolled into one. "I just got the ibest/i idea!"  
  
"Uh oh." The other three boys looked extremely worried. They remembered that the last time James got an idea, they all ended up with 5 detentions each and 40 points taken from Gryffindor.  
  
James ignored the extremely worried expressions on his friends' faces and continued on with his latest idea. "We could enchant these bats to follow Snape around and hit him on the head."  
  
Sirius suddenly looked as if his birthday had come six months early. "He'll be in the hospital wing with a concussion and we won't have to put up with him in Potions!"  
  
"The downside is McGonagall would know it was us and after she catches us, we all get detention and 20 points from Gryffindor." said Remus, who still looked nervous.  
  
James snorted. "Stop being a pessimist Remus."  
  
"I'd rather be a isafe/i pessimist than see my name on a cup in the trophy room for the most detentions in one term or most house points lost by one person."  
  
Sirius jumped up suddenly, grinning. "They give you a cup for that?"  
  
"Well let's put it this way Padfoot, if they did, you would have won it five times running."  
  
"Aww... thanks James, I feel so honored that you think I'm worthy of winning it."  
  
James smacked his forehead in frustration.  
  
"It's a perfect plan!" exclaimed Peter. "It'll be our first detention of the school year!"  
  
Sirius closed his eyes and sighed dreamily. "I can smell the Mrs. Skower's All-Purpose Magical Mess Remover already."  
  
"Uh, maybe that's because you just opened a box full of it." said James, looking inside the box Sirius had just opened.  
  
"Oh." Sirius snapped back into reality and picked up the box. "I'll just give this stuff to your mum, Remus." "We have no use for it."  
  
"But Filch does." replied Remus. "We could give it to him as a 'welcome back to overseeing the Marauders' detentions after two months of rest and relaxation' present."  
  
"Ok then, I'll just ask your mum for some wrapping paper and we can wrap it on the train." said Sirius, who was descending the ladder into the hallway.  
  
"My turn!" yelled Remus like a little boy on Christmas morning.  
  
"No, it's mine!" said Sirius reappearing at the top of the ladder.  
  
Remus sighed in frustration. "No, it's mine." "You just opened the box full of cleaning supplies."  
  
"But that doesn't count! How come James got the quidditch stuff and all I get is Mrs. Skower's All-Purpose Magical Mess Remover?" whined Sirius.  
  
"Would you like some cheese to go with that whine, Sirius?"  
  
"Shut up Peter"  
  
"Yeah really Padfoot, this isn't Burger King, you can't have it your way."  
  
Sirius looked at James with a look of confusion on his face. "What on earth did you just say James?" Sirius looked at Peter who was now laughing like a monkey. "What did he just say Wormtail?"  
  
"I-It's a m-muggle thing." explained Peter who was still breaking out into fits of laughter. "W-Where did y-you h-hear that Prongs."  
  
James shrugged. "I overheard a muggleborn first year saying it a few weeks ago." "What does it mean anyway?"  
  
"I don't know." said Remus shrugging. "But it's still my turn." Remus pulled a small pocket mirror out of the cardboard box he was holding. "Wow! I can see myself!"  
  
"No, really Moony?"  
  
Remus stuck his tongue out at James in retaliation. "As I was about to say before I was so irudely/i interrupted-"  
  
"Do you mean like this?" said Peter.  
  
"Huh?" said Remus, who was obviously confused.  
  
Peter smiled and said, "I'm rudely interrupting you."  
  
"Oh." said Remus, picking up the bat again and hitting Peter in the head with it. "As I was saying... I'm different... I can see the full moon in the background but... I'm not transforming... weird..."  
  
"Ooh, let me try!" said Sirius, snatching the mirror out of Remus's hands. "Cool! I think this mirror shows the future!"  
  
Remus all of a sudden looked very hopeful. "Does that mean that they'll find a cure for lycanthropy?"  
  
Sirius shrugged, his eyes still gazing into the mirror. "How should I know? I'm not a seer."  
  
"Hey," said James. "There's an engraving on the back. It says, 'eriseD foro rriM tekco Peht maI'"  
  
"I am the Pocket Mirror of Desire."  
  
The other three boys spun around and stared at Peter curiously. Peter noticed the expressions on their faces and quickly explained himself. "That's what James said, only he said it backwards."  
  
Remus covered his face with his hands and leaned forward in deep thought. "I think I remember reading something about the Mirror of Erised a couple weeks ago."  
  
"You're always reading something about something Remus."  
  
"Shut up Sirius, I'm trying to think. I remember now, it was in iAncient Magical Artifacts and What They Do./i The Mirror of Erised is a mirror that will show you the deepest, most desperate desire of your heart."  
  
Peter turned around and looked at Sirius who was now pressing his nose into the glass, engrossed in whatever it was he was seeing. "What's it showing you Sirius?"  
  
Sirius stared hungrily into the mirror with his tongue hanging out, almost touching the glass in fact, and replied, "Asparagus!"  
  
"Your deepest desire is yourself eating asparagus, Padfoot?" asked Remus, who wrinkled an eyebrow curiously.  
  
Sirius snapped out of his trance long enough to look at Remus. "What's so wrong about that Moony?"  
  
"So many things. I think I should give you a one-way ticket to St. Mungo's for your birthday. You'll get a lot of use out of it."  
  
Peter snorted. "Unlike some of your other presents, James"  
  
"What? The dungbombs were useful!" retorted James.  
  
Remus sighed. "The Slytherin common room stunk for about a week if I remember correctly. And we all got 3 days of detention."  
  
"We got back at Snape and his gang of Slytherin goons with those dungbombs. They were like I said, incredibly useful." said James, whose attention quickly changed from Remus to Sirius, who was still gazing into the mirror. "Let me see that!" he said, taking the mirror from Sirius. He quickly started wiping the face of the mirror with his shirt sleeve. "Ugh, there's drool all over it!"  
  
Sirius looked at James with his bottom lip trembling and his eyes welling up. "N-No m-more asparagus? Padfoot want asparagus!"  
  
James didn't respond, for now it was his turn to gaze into the mirror with his tongue hanging out.  
  
"I wonder what he's looking at." said Peter in a curious voice.  
  
Remus shrugged. He didn't really care either way, it was after all James's business and not his own, but his curiosity got the better of him. He crawled over to where James was sitting, who was still completely mesmerized with the vision, peeked over James's shoulder and as soon as he saw what James was so spellbound with, started cracking up into fits of hysterical laughter and rolling on the attic floor.  
  
Sirius followed Remus's lead and sure enough, there were now two idiots laughing their heads off and rolling every which way on the floor, occasionally bumping into old, musty, cardboard boxes.  
  
"Ok, I changed my mind, I idon't/i want to know!"  
  
Sirius finally calmed down after about 3 minutes of laughing his head off on the floor and brushed the dust off his clothes. "You know that red- headed girl in our year, Peter? What's her name again? Rose? Daisy?  
  
"Her name is Lily, you moron!" said James, not taking his eyes off of the image reflected back at him from the mirror.  
  
"Oh right, I knew it was a flower name. Anyway, her picture is in the mirror."  
  
Peter looked as if he was made captain of the quidditch team. "OOH! THAT'S THE ULTIMATE IN BLACKMAIL!" Peter shifted his gaze to James who was staring goggle-eyed into the mirror, completely silent and oblivious to everything that was going on around him. "Can I look at the mirror James?"  
  
"Huh, what?"  
  
Sirius sighed exasperatedly at his friend. "Like this, Wormtail." Sirius pulled his wand out of his left pocket and pointed it at James. "Expelliarmus!" The mirror flew out of James's hand; right into Sirius's outstretched one. "Here you go, Peter."  
  
"Thanks," said Peter, smiling appreciatively at Sirius before he peered into the mirror. All of a sudden his eyes lit up and he screamed, "WOW! THIS IS INCREDIBLE!!"  
  
James snorted as he looked over Peter's shoulder at what he was so excited about. "Yeah, it's also impossible."  
  
"Why? What's it showing him?" asked Remus, looking up from the golden snitch he was now inspecting in his hands.  
  
"Oh nothing much, just himself as the most powerful wizard in the world."  
  
Whatever it was Remus was expecting to hear from James, it certainly wasn't that. He once again went to pieces and collapsed on the dusty attic floor, shaking with laughter.  
  
"What, may I ask, is so funny?" asked Peter, looking at his friends who were all now rolling around on the floor, laughing their heads off.  
  
James finally sat up and attempted (yet failed) to brush off all of the dust on his clothes. "Nothing Peter, it's your turn to open a box..." 


End file.
